C 1820 – Harriet Ross Tubman, born Araminta “Minty” Ross, was born a slave in the plantation of Edward Brodess in Dorchester County, Maryland. Her mother was Harriet “Rit” Green owned by Mary Pattison Brodess; and her father was Ben Ross owned by Anthony Thomson.

1825 – Young Araminta was hired out to other households. Her first outside job was as a nursemaid where she was violently and frequently beaten when she let the baby cry. She was then hired to set muskrat traps. Because of the nature of the job she fell ill and was sent back to Brodess.

1833 – Araminta was severely injured in the head with a heavy metal weight aimed at a runaway slave. After the injury she started having seizures which affected her for the rest of her life. She started having premonitions and vivid dreams, she said that God communicated with her.

1840 – Her father, Ben Ross, was manumitted when he turned 45 years old. She found out that her mother’s owner’s will stipulated that she and her children be manumitted when they reached 45 years old. Brodess refused to honor his mother’s will.

1849 – Harriet fell ill. Her owner, Brodess, died leaving the plantation in a dire financial situation. Three of her sisters, Linah, Soph and Mariah Ritty, were sold.

September 17 – Harriet and her brothers, Ben and Henry, escaped from the Poplar Neck Plantation. Ben and Henry had second thoughts and returned to the plantation. The newspaper The Cambridge Democrat published a $300 reward for the return of Harriet and her two brothers. Harriet travelled 90 miles to Pennsylvania, a free state, using the Underground Railroad.

She changed her name to Harriet in honor of her mother and took her husband’s last name, Tubman.

December 1850 – Using her connections in the Underground Railroad, Harriet took her first trip to guide a family in their journey to freedom. Her niece, Kessiah, her husband, John Bowley, and their two children were freed from the bondage of slavery.

1851 – Returned for her husband but he refused to leave. He stayed in Dorchester County with his new wife Caroline.

1873 – Tubman borrowed money from a friend to buy gold. Before the exchange Tubman was attacked and her money stolen.

1874 – The couple adopted a baby girl named Gertie.

1880 – Tubman’s house in Auburn was destroyed by fire.

1886 – Bradford published a second biography, Harriet, the Moses of her People.

October 18, 1888 – Husband Nelson Davis died.

1898 – Tubman became involved in women’s suffrage giving speeches in Boston, New York and Washington.

Unable to sleep, Tubman underwent brain surgery at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital. She refused anesthesia and instead chewed on a bullet just like she had seen soldiers do when they had a leg amputated.

1903 – Tubman donated her property to the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Auburn to be converted into a home for the “aged and indigent colored people”.